The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-10
THE RECONSTRUCTED SOUTH
General Wilder's Observations Regard
ing the Changes in Recent Years.
influences That Have Brought About an Al
together New Order of Things CONNER
cially, Socially and Politically.

brigade at Greencastle. He and his wife are
stopping with friends in the city, but will leave
to-day for home eff you are willing said a
Journal reporter to the General, yesterday, 81
would like you to tell something of the
dition and sentiment of the Southern people"
II have objection to talking" he replied.
'but 1 will warn you. to begin with, that COM
paratively few people will believe what I say.
There have been such conflicting statements
from the South, and Northern men have 500 fixed
their theories on political biag that men
of both the great parties get TO one side or the
other of the truth, and both parties still
further misled by a superstition that the South of
today is the South of fifteen years ago. 1t is not
what it fifteen years ago, ten
years ago, five years ago; in fact,
there has been more change in the last five years
than in all of the remaining period since the
war. Understand me now-I am speaking not
merely of the commercial and industrial features
Of the South, but of the people themselves, in
their social and political relations"
What has produced the change you refer tol'
"Some of it is due to changed circumstances,
lone to growth. some merely to the effects of
time. just after the close of the there was
naturally bitter feeling among Southern men.
The people had suffered heavy losses. Their
pride had been crushed. The lower classes felt
had represented that the North had neither the
will nor the power to subdue them. The bitter
ness doubled by the emancipation and
enfranchisement of the slaves. At this time
many Northern men went to the South Some
OF them were men adventurers others were
honest, but they were Missionaries who expected
to change the nature Of the Southern people and
speedily give them the habits of life and modes
of thought of the North. At the same time
there was through the communities a
6na tn
the long continuance of which brought
many families TO distress. Under the
Struction governments there was, to say the least
msmanaPement and squandering of the public
funds. Taxes grew until there absolute
danger Of confscation of landed estates for the
support or the local governments Then the
ku-klux system organized and by it the
white administrations built negro votes were
broken down. To some extent the Ku klux
movement was founded on honest desire for
endurable local government. but it went too far,
and made no distinction between good and bad.
Under that system the local governments
passed into the hands of vindictive and
merciless men, who used their power lawful and
unlawful, to crafty their personal spites. The
state of affairs became so bad that the people
themselves revolted against it and put an end to
it. This was proof positive to them that public
misfortunes were not limited to negro govern
ments alone; and ct the time they began
DO realize that their personal misfortunes
not due altogether to the negro governments, as
they had imagined"
"Their poverty alone must have worked some
change in themP'
"Of course it did. The old Southern hospital
ity-a generosity that prominent in slavery
poverty. Neither could plantations be worked
successfully the old plan. for the
negroes began to desire interests in land
and would not work without it. By this period
manufacturing had begun to be of some i'm
portance. Chattanooga a conspicuous sue
The iron business had taken the lead and
wood -workers had followed. The progress never
stopped In seventeen years 121 factories have
sprung up in that city alone Then came the
Georgia Cotton Exposition. A great many
Southern people went to it. They aston
ished to learn the resources of their region. The
people were set to thinking, and a great i'm
pulse given to manufacturing. We printed
maps and statistics, and circulated them; we
talked the matter of DEVELOPMENT of homo
sources; and through these agencies the South
awoke to the fact that the progress of purely
agricultural community can never get beyond
certain point. They began to appreciate the
value of diverse occupations and home markets
for agricultural products"
''Was this development general through the
Southl"
ITO some extent, YES am speaking chiefly.
however, of the section with which am most
familiar the central South. But that an ex-
tensive region. In Alabama are the towns of
Birmingham, Admission, Gadsden, Decatur
Sheffield and Florence, wing with each other in
their industrial efforts. In Tennessee are Nash
Vile. Tullahoma. Chattanooga, Knoxville and
johnson City. In Georgia have At
lanta, Rome. Gainesville. Augusta and Column
bus. Then there Bristol, Roanoke, Pulaski
and Pocahontas, in Old Virginia; and Asheville
lima is just beginning to awake to her possibili-
ties of Development The central South is
changed The new generation has outgrown
the old traditions. the old drinking, swagger-
ing Georgia colonies, the idle F. T.. VS.. and tho
penthouse politicians have been relegated the
rear. The people see that the way out of mis-
fortune is to go to work and develop their home
resources, and they are going at it in dead earn
est"
'Isn's there danger of their going in too fast9'
For their own good, yes. For the benefit of
the country, Doubtless unskilled persons
will get in too deep, and private embarrassment
will result, but the mineral region there cannot
Has the industrial development had any po-
litical effect"
Eyes sir. Just as fast as the people become
interested in manufactures they become protec-
kionisrs. Whenever manufacturing district be-
comes organized it becomes Republican dis
trict. 1t is pure matter of business-no love
of the Republican party. Governor Brown, of
Georgia, became interested in the iron industry.
He had furnaces at Chattanooga and in Georgia.
old Southern idea to carry politics into bus
ness the new idea Is to carry
business into politics. This is bearing
fruit We six Republican congress
sional districts in the central South, and six
more just on the turn, due almost wholly to the
development of manufactures. Then, too. there
is a large class of people who are Republican In
principle but not otherwise, because they can
never get over their prejudice against the name
Even Democratic politicians have had
TO champion protection in some districts to
their Offices Both Democratic politicians and
Republican statesmen believe that manufactur-
ing will be the salvation of the South. and the
belief Is not uncommon that New England will
favor free trade and the South high tariff.
is there any development beyond that in
sPlred by the pure business instnetl"
Yes cir. The people becoming more lib
eral In every way Their public schools
greatly improved. We have just as good schools |
In Chattanooga as you have here, and what is
more, the negroes have just as good educational
advantages as the whites. They will not toler
ate Joint schools, however. Both Democrats
and Republicans object them. The real need |
of the South is Industrial schools especially for
the negroes. They need to be taught to be |
blacksmiths masons, carpenters. and the like; |
and the women TO become seamstresses cooks
milliners. The truth is that higher educa- |
ton is of to the Southern negro excent |
in very few cases l wish 1 could impress that |
on every negro in the country. Understand me
am earnest friend of education l built the